A look at the good, the bad and the ugly at the midpoint of the Patriots' preseason

Sunday

Aug 17, 2014 at 9:45 PMAug 17, 2014 at 9:53 PM

As usual, a number of issues have developed to this point in the Pats' summer.

Glen Farley The Enterprise @GFarley_ent

No one’s been more critical of Ryan Mallett over the years than yours truly and one performance can’t erase what I’ve seen since 2011, but it seems he isn’t ready to turn in his Patriots playbook just yet.

Safe to say, Mallett showed more in the second half of the Patriots’ 42-35 preseason win over the Philadephia Eagles at Gillette Stadium on Friday night than he’d shown in the three-plus years that preceded it.

And that’s the good news and the bad news of the situation.

Now for a look at the good, the bad and the ugly halfway through the Patriots’ preseason:

From the start, the NFL made it clear it intended to make illegal contact and defensive holding points of emphasis this preseason, but the excessive flags (28 penalties called; 21 accepted in Friday night’s flagfest in Foxboro) are pushing the game to the point of boredom.

Let’s hope the fellows in stripes are merely attempting to send a message; if this is the way it’s going to be we’re in for a long season with the games on Sunday at 1 consistently running into the day’s 4:15 p.m. starts.

The league won’t allow that to happen, which is why I suspect the cease-and-desist order comes down at the end of the month.

While I’m at it, the experiment over the first couple of weeks of the preseason in moving the snap on point-after conversions back to the 15 is ridiculous, too.

Under my proposal to make PATs more difficult, place-kickers would be required to kick them with their opposite foot.

Why not?

It’s just as random as spotting the ball at the 15 and would made the conversion much more challenging and exciting.

Yeah, it’s a joke; just like spotting the ball at the 15.

Spot the ball from whence it came. So the PATs are virtually automatic. Fine. That’s a team’s reward for scoring a touchdown. And those occasions, rare as they may be, when teams attempt a fake happen to be extremely entertaining.

Six tackles and two pass breakups on defense and a stop on special teams in the first preseason game followed by seven tackles, a forced fumble and a recovery in the second?

Yeah, I’d say Malcolm Butler, the rookie free-agent cornerback out of West Alabama, is serious about making this team.

If Patrick Chung was consistently a step late to the play his first time around, what made the Patriots think things would be any different the second time around?

The fact that no one’s seized the safety position alongside Devin McCourty was reinforced on Friday night when, just as they had in practice during the week, cornerbacks Kyle Arrington (who started) and Logan Ryan took turns at the position in game conditions.

Favored to start at the outset of training camp, Duron Harmon had become somewhat of a forgotten soul prior to his interception and 33-yard return in the third quarter on Friday, but even that carried an asterisk; it came at the expense of Mark Sanchez.

While it hasn’t exactly been headling grabbing, I’ve been impressed by the athleticism Darius Fleming continues to show at the linebacker position and on special teams.

Fleming, who never made it to the start of the regular season in two years in San Francisco (a torn anterior cruciate ligament both seasons), may eventually be among the Patriots’ cuts, but, to his credit, he isn’t making the team’s decision easy.

When the Patriots signed him following his release from the New Orleans Saints there was some serious question as to whether defensive end Will Smith, coming off a major knee injury at the age of 33, had anything left in the tank.

By now, I think the question’s been answered.

Smith is running on empty.

With two penalties in two weeks, wide receiver Josh Boyce (who also had a drop on a ball thrown slightly behind him) is taking himself out of the running for the NFL’s preseason Lady Byng.

At the same time, with Brian Tyms continuing to make plays and Roy Finch showing some ability in the kick return game, he may also be taking himself out of the running for a job.

The Patriots continue to mix and match in an attempt to find the right combination in the offensive line.

Friday night’s game was the latest round in the heavyweight battle veterans Dan Connolly (who seems to be winning) and Ryan Wendell for the starting center, a position where rookie Bryan Stork (injured early in camp) has been unable to compete.

Meanwhile, 2013 practice squad member Jordan Devey started at right guard and played some left tackle against the Eagles, his second extensive look in as many weeks playing to mixed reviews.

In less than one week’s time, the Patriots have released two tight ends (Justin Jones and Asa Watson) and brought in three more (Ben Hartsock, Steve Maneri and Terrence Miller) then cut ties with two of them.

All we had to see was one pass route from the sole survivor, Maneri, to understand why his NFL resume consists of six career receptions in 23 games.

Given the fact that he’d just arrived the previous Sunday, Maneri deserves a mulligan – speaking of which, perhaps the Patriots should have made more of an attempt to re-sign Matt Mulligan. A blocker first in the mold of Maneri, Mulligan had four receptions in the Chicago Bears’ 20-19 win over Jacksonville on Thursday night.

Halfway through the preseason schedule, Rob Gronkowski remains limited as he rehabs from his most recent trip to the operating room (to repair the anterior cruciate ligament he tore in December) and both Michael Hoomanawanui and D.J. Williams are ailing.

Considering all that, what kind of condition must Dustin Keller’s knee have been in if, after having him in for a visit during the offseason, the Patriots haven’t brought him in since?

Now, explain to me again: Why didn’t this team invest one of its nine picks in the 2014 draft in a tight end?

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